


never des(s)ert you

by sugarcubeshiro



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Autistic Keith (Voltron), Friendship, Galaxy Garrison, Gen, M/M, Pre-Kerberos Mission, Pre-Relationship, canon prekerb so no romantic feelings from shiro yet, keith is vaguely going 'i am looking... Respectfully' at shiro lmao
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-30
Updated: 2020-05-30
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:53:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24456238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sugarcubeshiro/pseuds/sugarcubeshiro
Summary: “Strawberry cheesecake ice cream,” Shiro says cheerfully when Keith doesn’t say anything else, as if spelling it out will finally make him perk up. “The solution to every problem ever.” He slides one of the two spoons he’s holding across the counter to Keith, then sits down and pops the lid off the tub.“Guess you don’t have many problems that often, then,” Keith mutters.
Relationships: Keith & Shiro (Voltron), Keith/Shiro (Voltron)
Comments: 27
Kudos: 167





	never des(s)ert you

“Alright,” Shiro says to Keith who’s sitting on the other side of the kitchen counter in Shiro’s room at the Galaxy Garrison. “You can open your eyes now.”

Keith slowly peeks one eye open, then raises his eyebrows as he stares down at the tub of ice cream Shiro’s placed in front of him.

“Oh,” he says. It’s maybe not the instantly happy reaction that Shiro was hoping for, but—that’s okay. Keith’s had a rough day, what with accidentally setting off a small fire in the classroom during his science class and all. A bunch of the other cadets had then also accused him of doing it on purpose, and of course the teacher refused to listen to anything Keith tried to say in his defense. Finally Shiro had to come over to Commander Iverson’s office and use his powers of persuasion to calm everyone down.

“Strawberry cheesecake ice cream,” Shiro says cheerfully when Keith doesn’t say anything else, as if spelling it out will finally make him perk up. “The solution to every problem ever.” He slides one of the two spoons he’s holding across the counter to Keith, then sits down and pops the lid off the tub.

“Guess you don’t have many problems that often, then,” Keith mutters.

“Hm?” Shiro’s already busying himself with stabbing his own spoon into the frozen ice cream. “What d’ya mean?”

“Can’t imagine you eat a lot of ice cream, right? Given the whole—” Keith gestures with his spoon at Shiro, “—thing you’ve got going on. With the, uh, muscles.”

Shiro snorts as he gets a spoonful of pink, creamy goodness scooped up and shoves it into his mouth. “Not really, no,” he mumbles around it with a shrug. “But when I do— _mm._ C’mon, Keith! Go ahead, dig in. Eat as much as you want. You want the whole thing? It’s yours.”

“Okay, alright, just—I’ll... yeah.” Keith squirms a little in the chair before lifting his spoon, but he pauses again with his cheeks going red.

Shiro tilts his head, still sucking on the spoon, then finally pops it out of his mouth. “You don’t like ice cream or something, buddy?”

“No, no!” Keith hurries out before giving him a forced smile. “Of course I do. This is—it’s great. Thanks, Shiro.”

“You’re not a very convincing liar, Keith.” Shiro snorts, more amused than anything else, but Keith ducks his head while his face goes an even deeper shade of crimson.

“I’m sorry,” Keith says. “I didn’t mean to—”

“Hey, no—why are you—” Shiro stops and shakes his head to himself when Keith looks like he’s trying to hide in the collar of his uniform jacket. “Keith. It’s—I mean, it’s okay? You don’t _have_ to like strawberry ice cream or anything.”

“I’m not trying to be rude.”

“Why would I think you’re rude just because you don’t like something? I’m not gonna be personally offended by your tastebuds. Really. It’s no big deal.”

Keith looks at him like Shiro’s just told him that he’s met an alien or something—in utter disbelief and like he’s wondering what’s wrong with Shiro.

“Oh-okay,” Keith finally says. “People usually just...”

“Usually what?” Shiro says and sneaks some more ice cream onto his spoon while Keith bites his bottom lip. Keith might not like it, but Shiro would honestly die for anything with strawberry flavour.

“It’s stupid.”

“Try me.”

“I dunno,” Keith says slowly with another shrug. “People always think I’m rude because I’m a picky eater or whatever. One time, I—I mean, in this foster home I lived in once?”

“Yeah?” Shiro hums for him to continue, always doing his best to act casual and not make a big deal out of it when Keith tells him something personal. He still swears he feels his heart grow three sizes whenever it happens, though, since it means that Keith’s comfortable enough to share these things with him and actually _trusts_ Shiro. And no one deserves to have someone he can trust more than Keith does.

“I told them I can’t eat boiled vegetables,” Keith says. “But the dad said if I like carrots when they’re roasted, then I’m just being a brat if I don’t eat them when they’re boiled.” 

“And were you? Just being a brat, I mean.”

“Um, no. I mean, I tried to eat the boiled carrots since I _had_ to, and then—well, I threw up all over their kitchen floor. And they, uh—they didn’t really like that either.”

_“Ew.”_ Shiro grimaces, but he can’t help the shocked little giggle that leaves him before he tries to collect himself, even if Keith huffs out a laugh too. “I’m sorry but, full offense, they really had that coming. And it wasn’t your fault, Keith.”

Keith squirms a little in his seat again, fiddling with the spoon in his hands. “It’s not like that was the only time, though. It’s like—” Keith licks his lips, still staring down at the spoon. “People always act like I’m trying to be difficult on purpose or something. And, like—yeah, okay, I know maybe I can be, um... a _lot_ sometimes. But most of the time I don’t even know what I’ve done wrong, and then when I’m with you I don’t want you to think that I’m just—”

He snaps his mouth shut, glancing away while working his jaw.

Shiro studies him in silence for a moment, weighing the words in his mind before finally saying, “Did you grab the ice cream and throw it at my face?”

Keith looks back at him with furrowed brows. “What?”

“Would you ever yell at me that I’m disgusting for even having it in my freezer?” Shiro grabs the ice cream and holds it up between them, giving it a little shake for emphasis. “Tell me I’m an asshole for offering it to you, even though I didn’t even know that you don’t like it?”

_“No.”_ Keith looks like he doesn’t know if he’s supposed to laugh or not. “Of course I wouldn’t.”

“See?” Shiro grins at him. “Then I don’t think you’ve been very rude at all. It’s okay to be your own person, Keith. And—listen, you can make fun of me for _lecturing you_ or whatever over this, but—you’re allowed to like or dislike whatever the hell you want, and there’s nothing wrong with that. I’ll fight anyone who says otherwise, alright? Plus—this leaves more ice cream for me. So I don’t see why I should complain, anyway.”

“You’re so weird,” Keith mutters and glances down at the table for a moment before flicking his eyes back up to Shiro’s face. “In a good way. Still, uh—not trying to be rude.”

“You’re the weird one, buddy.” Shiro keeps holding the tub of ice cream in his hand as he gets working on scooping up another big, nice spoonful. He’ll definitely have to skip treating himself to something snacky during the weekend and he wasn’t even the one in need of comfort food, but—right now, it feels _so_ worth it. “You’re the one who doesn’t like ice cream.”

“I like ice cream,” Keith says.

“Yeah?”

“Just—I only like vanilla.”

“Seriously?” Shiro frowns. _“Only_ vanilla ice cream?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Not even chocolate?”

Keith shakes his head. “Nope. Just vanilla.” Then he leans forward a little like he’s trying to peek into the tub. “But—I mean, just so you know... I still like cheesecake.”

He gives Shiro a pointed look, and Shiro freezes before he bursts out a laugh. Keith smiles too—small and tentative at first, but soon enough it fully blooms into a big grin, showing his teeth and all when Shiro smiles back just as wide.

“Alright,” Shiro says with a chuckle and puts the ice cream down between them on the counter again. “Help yourself to as many chunks of cheesecake as you want, buddy.”

Keith’s already leaning forward with his spoon raised, but he still pauses before he digs in. “You sure?”

_“Yes,_ I’m sure,” Shiro says with a fond roll of his eyes. “Between the two of us, I have a second one in the freezer anyway for emergencies, so—really, you’re all good.”

Keith chuckles softly. “Thanks,” he murmurs and looks up at Shiro with his cheeks going red again. Then he suddenly seems extremely interested in studying the ice cream as he starts to scrape through it for any pieces of cake.

Shiro smiles even though Keith’s not looking at him, and feels his heart clench with a ridiculous amount of affection. He knows that Keith’s not just saying thanks for the small crumbs of frozen cheesecake.

And he really doesn’t care if Keith likes the ice cream or not.

Shiro got Keith to smile again after a bad day, which is all that matters to him.

**Author's Note:**

> combined a prompt from [ils](https://twitter.com/justsayins) who asked for keith being faced with a food he really doesn't like and trying to grin and bear it but shiro goes "...hang on now", and an anon who wanted soft prekerb sheith with maybe young keith who’s just learning to open himself up to people. tysm for the prompts! ♥
> 
> [twitter](https://twitter.com/sugarcubeshiro)


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